2014 recruiting

In an attempt to distract you from the frustration of last night, here's a (brief) scouting report on the quarterbacks who have been confirmed or rumored to be in contact with Michigan about potentially receiving a scholarship offer for 2014. When I put all the names together, the list came out at the nice, round number of 10. Hopefully I didn't forget anyone important, but if I did, you can only blame yourself for not following me on Twitter and tossing out suggestions.

Well, now that Denzel Ward is gone, Michigan doesn't have any offensive linemen committed for 2014. But February was good to Michigan last year, so maybe it will be again. One guy who likes Michigan is Tarpon Springs (FL) East Lake's Mason Cole. I did a scouting report on him, and while he doesn't look likely to replace Ward as a tackle, Cole does look like a promising guard prospect. He moves pretty darn well for an offensive lineman. I think he would do a good job as a pulling guard in Al Borges's offense:

My scouting report this week is on Chicago (IL) Marist tight end Nic Weishar. Tight end isn't the sexiest position, but it appears Al Borges wants to bring in several guys and use them in various ways. Weishar plays wide receiver in high school, so he's used to catching passes, but he's not quite the athlete that someone like Devin Funchess is.

So starting with the class of 2014, college coaches can call, text and communicate privately by any methods available without restrictions. No more one-call-per-week. No more dead periods. No more ban on text messaging.

Still on the table and awaiting a decision is this potential new rule:

If 13-2 passes in April, prospects in their junior years can expect up to six visits per institution at home and school from coaches during the contact period, just as seniors experience.

This will only make recruiting even more insane and more competitive, because in addition to all of this you can have coaches that are not full-time staff members make calls for you too, and there are no longer limitations on the number of coaches that can be on the road recruiting.

Essentially, recruiting has been deregulated. So...as a school with a large budget, do you think this good for Michigan? Or will the "we play nice in the Big Ten" culture hurt us? We already know the SEC will go nuts with these rules...

This is a list of the Important targets that have Michigan in their anticipated or stated top 5. I have listed them by importance to the Class of 2014. It’s still early in the process with more offers starting to go out and recruits are narrowing down their choices.

FB, TE, Safety, OLB, are lower priority needs and I did not list them. DT is a pretty big need and several offers have been given out, but Michigan doesn’t sit too well with the big named prospects as of yet.

The biggest need in this class is SDE. We have some big name offers given out and Michigan is sitting well with at least 3 of them.

SDE

Da’Shawn Hand [#1 overall prospect] (Has Michigan in his top 5)

Malik McDowell [#2 SDE] Detroit Loyola kid who is a must get for this class. (Michigan in top 3)